Spectacles assemble in September

Updated 2:38 pm, Friday, September 14, 2012

Scooter-driving mods, including one portrayed by Police singer Sting, take to the streets in "Quadrophenia."

Scooter-driving mods, including one portrayed by Police singer Sting, take to the streets in "Quadrophenia."

Photo: Criterion Collection

Spectacles assemble in September

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A couple of blockbusters hew their way onto video in September, the girl-power retake of
“Snow White & the Huntsmen” and Joss Whedon's all-star superhero rally
“The Avengers.” In their own ways, other movies also escalate into crazy spectacle.

A Japanese movie with a French title,
“Hospitalité” tells about a mysterious stranger who inserts himself into a family's life and gradually takes over the home and business, turning it into a refuge for more and more people. As the story spirals into absurdity, we can't tell if his mischief will have a good or bad effect.

“Maidstone and Other Films by Norman Mailer” hails from the turbulent era of 1967 to 1970. With a handheld camera in the actors' faces, these efforts are like boxing matches with Mailer as the referee to his own scrappy stardom. He's a gibbering force of nature, brutish and confrontational, whether as a gangster stuck with two others in an existential room (“Wild 90”) or a cop interrogating suspects (“Beyond the Law”).

Those are rough b&w improv efforts. In the color “Maidstone,” the most sophisticated and lyrical, he plays an arty director running for president while shooting a sex film (!) as a shadowy group discusses whether he's “ripe fruit for assassination.” He and Rip Torn break the fourth wall in an edgy put-on of an ending. In fact, they all end with an exhausted Mailer addressing the camera, as if throwing in the towel.

Things get out of hand good and proper in
“Quadrophenia.” In London and Brighton of the early '60s, rebellious youth divide themselves into Mods and Rockers and have a rumble to music by the Who. That group supervised a new soundtrack mix (the original is also offered), while the director and photographer offer commentary. A bonus disc has interviews and background pieces.

On video at last is a hard-to-find classic. In the transitional era from silents to talkies, Hungarian immigrant Paul Fejos made the dazzling
“Lonesome,” about a couple who meet and go to Coney Island. It's a catalog of dynamic visual ideas, including moments of artificial color and a few dialogue scenes for flavor. This Criterion edition throws in two more Fejos items on a bonus disc: the erotic melodrama “The Last Performance,” with Conrad Veidt as a jealous magician, and the mostly dull “Broadway,” which shows off a huge stage built for a giant camera crane.

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In the 1960s and '70s, Italy's Mario Bava revitalized horror movies with a vivid sense of atmosphere and an eye for effects. Kino releases newly remastered editions of three examples on DVD and Blu-Ray.
“Black Sunday,” his horror debut, stars Barbara Steele in an iconic role of female rage as a reincarnated witch.

“A Hatchet for the Honeymoon,” one of Bava's most gorgeous and disorienting movies, begins with a man calmly announcing his insanity, spirals through his perverse mania, and then brings in a savage twist.
“Lisa and the Devil,” with Elke Sommer and Telly Savalas in the title roles, also includes the severely re-edited version known as “House of Exorcism.” All movies offer critical commentary.

Kino also offers a remastered DVD and Blu-ray of Buster Keaton's
“The Navigator,” one of his ingenious comedies of a couple confronting forces that dwarf them. In this case, they find themselves on an empty ship, a setting for one clever idea after another.

Finally, San Antonio's girl-who-made-good is showcased in Time-Life's
“The Carol Burnett Show Ultimate Collection,” a whopping 22 discs of 50 episodes plus many hours of bonus stuff, including skits from the early seasons and episodes of Carol's early work on “The Garry Moore Show.” If that's too much, there's the 6-disc “The Carol Burnett Show: Carol's Favorites,” with a mere 17 episodes.